San Francisco Giants Month in Review - July

Following a roller coaster ride in June which featured plenty of ups and downs for the San Francisco Giants, the G-Men opened up the month of July like a team asleep at the wheel, losing their first seven games after being swept on the road by the Miami Marlins and Washington Nationals before dropping two of three at home to the Mets. Having endured their second 7-game losing streak of the season, Giants manager Bruce Bochy called upon Matt Cain who pitched his team to victory in his second start of the season and first at home since August of last year as the former Giants ace hurled six shutout frames in a 3-0 win.

With a series against the visiting Phillies prior to baseball's Midsummer Classic, the Giants headed into the All-Star break with a bit of confidence and a three-game winning-streak following a three-game sweep of struggling Philadelphia. With a few days of rest and the return of Hunter Pence to the lineup, Bruce Bochy's ball club would begin playing their best ball of the season with a stretch of 13 wins in 15 games as the Giants turned up the heat in the NL Western Division standings and pulled within a 1/2 game of the rival Dodgers. Series wins against the D-Backs, Padres and Brewers as well as the first three-game sweep of their bay area rival Oakland A's for the first time at AT&T Park since 2011, would catapult the G-Men 11-games over .500 with a record of 56-45. In the series finale against the Athletics, Giants starter Tim Hudson joined an elite group of players by becoming only the 15th pitcher in MLB history to beat all 30 current teams following the 4-3 win, besting the team he broke onto the big league scene with in 1999 where he played six seasons.

Entering a weekend series against the Texas Rangers to close out the month of July and spring forward the month of August, the Giants headed into the lone star state as the hottest team in baseball before cooling down after splitting the first two games and eventually dropping the rubber match in the team's first visit to Arlington since the clinching Game 5 of the 2010 World Series. After allowing just 4 runs in his last three starts combined entering the weekend, Giants ace Madison Bumgarner was roughed up on the road in Texas. The Texas heat coupled with the power-driven offense of the Rangers made for a disastrous night on the mound as MadBum was touched for 6 earned runs in the contest. With the health of Tim Lincecum up in the air and the team unsure whether or not they'll see the 2-time Cy Young Award winner pitch again this season as he recovers from a degenerative condition in his hip which he was recently diagnosed with and has kept him on the shelf since June 27, Giants GM Brian Sabean was forced to dig into his bag of tricks.

Seeking some depth in the Giants rotation, the pitching staff got some much needed help from the front-office with the acquisition of right-handed pitcher Mike Leake from the Cincinnati Reds before Friday's trade deadline in exchange for Minor Leaguers Adam Duvall and Keury Mella. Making his Giants debut in the series finale against Texas, Leake, who becomes a free-agent following the season, pitched an impressive 6.1 innings while striking out 5 and yielding 8 hits, 2 walks and allowing only 2-runs on a home run by Josh Hamilton. However, Leake would suffer the loss as the Giants fell, 2-1. Leake came over in the trade owning a record of 9-5 on the year and an ERA of 3.56 in 21 starts as Cincy's no.2 man in the rotation, not bad for a guy pitching in Cincinnati's hitter-friendly Great American Ballpark. 

Overall, San Francisco finished 14-10 in the month of July and currently stand 2.5 games back of the Dodgers with a record of 57-47 as they get set to pay the Atlanta Braves a visit for a three-game set before closing their current road trip with four meetings at the friendly confines of Wrigley Field versus the Cubs. August will serve as a major test for the orange and black as 8 of the 9 remaining series' this month will be against contending teams (@ Cubs, vs Astros, vs Nationals, @ Cardinals, @ Pirates, vs Cubs, vs Cardinals and @ Dodgers) with the lone exception of the Braves. Let's just hope the Giants' emotional leader in Hunter Pence can stay healthy as the team sports a record of 27-11 with him in the line-up this season opposed to 30-36 without him.

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